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Might as well bang out a quick blog entry since I can’t sleep. (It’s going on 5am now… yay) Yesterday was productive. Went to Logan again to check on some banking stuff, stopped by my attorney’s office to drop off more paperwork, and then I was finally able to close the account associated with the estate. All debts have been paid, checks for the final disbursement have cleared, and that’s about all she wrote.

All that’s left now is for Steve to gather the final receipts and a couple other things, then he can go ahead and handle the closing hearing for me here in a few weeks. Please please please I hope nothing goes wrong between now and then. 🙏 Heh… y’all have no idea how happy I am that this is finally wrapping up. Well, maybe you do… but yeah, it’s been a long time comin’.

That’s the important stuff from yesterday anyway. I might try to make another entry later today when I wake up… gonna try to start keeping the blog a little more balanced if I can. Serious stuff here, frivolous stuff there. Depressing stuff one day, as-happy-as-I-can-muster stuff the next. That sorta thing. Meh… it always sounds good in theory, but in all honesty my writing takes on a life of its own – and whatever comes out of me comes out of me. 🤷‍♂️

I’m writing this particular entry at 6:00a because yesterday kicked my ass, and I ended up falling asleep around 8:00p last night… which, honestly, I don’t even remember happening. 😏 I guess that serves as proof (?) of how I have a limited battery when it comes to certain types of activities.

Yesterday afternoon was my appointment with the estate attorney, which I hope will be one of the last times that I have to see him. He was nice as usual, and it seemed that his lack of focus on my particular needs was based more on his full plate rather than anything intentional. I’m not excusing it, the way my calls went unanswered, but I’ve made my share of mistakes or slight delays in the process as well, so it just is what it is.

Everything is going to wind down now, finally, and with the exception of a little paperwork and an appearance before the court (for Steve, not me) there’s not much else that I’m likely going to have to do. I only have to wait a few days to make sure the figures that I’ve got are kosher, and then that’ll pretty much be that.

But yesterday… heh… I thought I was gonna be able to go in there and wrap things up in like ten minutes, but of course things are never that simple when lawyers and courts are involved. 🙄 I didn’t think I’d have to bring all of the shit I’ve compiled over the past year and a half, so I had to also run over to the bank, run back home for some stuff, and then back there to drop off the remaining paperwork. A little more work at home, preparing some paperwork and stuff I have to mail out, and *ploop* … I was out. 😳😴

I did stop in at my estate attorney’s office. He wasn’t there, but after explaining the situation to one of his secretaries and indicating that I didn’t really intend to leave their lobby until they could give me some more information… heh… she finally ended up calling him, apologized for interrupting, and then after a short exchange she got him to schedule another appointment with me at the beginning of next month. 😒 Not exactly the quick resolution I was hoping for, but at least it’s something.

It sounds like all he has left to do is to draw up and submit some sort of “final accounting” type paperwork to the county court, showing that everything has been well documented and that there’s been no shenanigans. 🤔 He’s had all that info for weeks now, and he knew that it would eventually reach this point, so I’m not sure why there’s been such a delay… but at least now it sounds like this next meeting might be the last meeting, and hopefully soon after that I’ll be able to send Dad his check, deposit mine, and then finally, finally be done with all this. 😑

It’s not that it has occupied all my time as of late, or required more physical or mental energy than I was able to expend… it’s just the tedious nature of it. The way it’s always hanging in my thoughts as one of the many “things” that I’m compelled to think about and worry about until they are complete. 🤓 So for the next week and a half I’ll be holding my breath and hoping that there’s no other stupid little things that will trip up the process.

It’s 2am, I just finished the previous blog entry, my neck hurts, I’m tired but not remotely sleepy… so I might as well go ahead and do another entry and discuss why I’m so worked up about my attorney’s lack of communication lately. 😒 I’ll just schedule it to post in the afternoon when I’ll hopefully still be sleeping. (I’ve thought on this, and I’ve decided that I’m going to make today only a partial work day.)

It was probably a month ago that I let him know that it might be impossible to get one of the tax refunds, due to the IRS requiring documents that I didn’t have. But shortly after that I let him know that the issue had been resolved, and that the money for both refunds had been deposited in the estate account, so everything was square. Nothing else needed to be paid out or deposited, so I just wanted to know what the next step is.

So I had called once, then I actually stopped by and left a note explaining that the accounts were settled as they should be, along with a printout of the last two required deposits, then I called and left another message on the general office voice mail, and then a week or so later I left yet anothervoice mail on his direct line. So things had been taken care of about a month ago, yet every message that I’ve left since then has gone unanswered… so I’m left here waiting for guidance on what comes next.

Like I said in the last message I left him… if there’s something else that I need to do, or anything else “official” that he needs to do in order for me to close the account, just please let me know. I just want to be in the loop, even if the answer is “I still have to file several TPS reports and it could take up to six months.” just let me F’ing know. 😑 And alternatively, if everything is good and I can split and close the account tomorrow – then great… just let me F’ing know. 😠 I honestly can’t think of a single good reason why they would be ducking me like this, but I’m still hoping that there’s just been some sort of miscommunication and it’s not intentional.

And I know that I probably haven’t been the easiest client to work with, since I’ve had a few questions and hiccups here and there throughout the process… but I also know that I’m not the dumbest asshole that he’s had to work with either. Meh… it won’t be today, but sometime this week I’m going to be going there to find out what the problem is. 😠 I’m gonna try not to get loud, but someone in that office better be able to answer some damn questions and get this friggin’ train ride moving again. It’s so close to being over, and this time it’s not me that’s leaning on the brake. 😒

Just got back from a couple of nights away down in Cincinnati. The Jack keeps throwing free room offers at me like a kid on a paper route, so I figured I’d take one little “last hurrah” trip down there before the weather starts getting cold and crappy. Even at 3am it was still warm enough that we could stroll the sidewalks around the hotel and sit on the curb and watch the city going to sleep. And we couldn’t help but keep glancing up at the apartments of Seven at Broadway and wonder what kind of job a person would have to have where they could justify spending $1500 to $2500 a month on rent.

Other than being “somewhere else” we really didn’t make any plans for what we wanted to do, and were content just being potatoes in the room, swimming in the pool that was apparently reserved just for us, and making a couple of trips over to The Jack to grub on free buffets and spend my comps (and a little bit more) to make it feel like a real vacation. 😎 Although I think the thing that gave us that “vacation” feeling the most was springing for room service for breakfast. 😋 It was only $10 for the typical eggs, sausage/bacon, home fries, toast, etc… hard to pass up feeling special at that price.

Coming back home sure was a shitty feeling though. Neither one of us messed with our phones much during those three days, so we had this force field of self-imposed isolation around us for most of the trip – and I think it made us both wonder what it would feel like to completely abandon our current lives and just transplant ourselves (not together… heh) into some completely new location with all new people and all new experiences. 🤔 Meh… but then I guess those are the types of things that vacation is supposed to make you wonder about.

I intended to keep my mind clear for the rest of the night after getting back yesterday, but unfortunately the closer I got to home, the more that “home stuff” started creeping into my brain. 😒 I had already been thinking about this at the hotel actually… how I have to make a trip to Logan soon to personally stop in at my estate attorney’s office, since nobodythere can be bothered to return my damn phone calls for some reason. 😠 It feels like a personal slight, plus it’s keeping both Dad and me waiting around like tools, so it only makes sense that I began dwelling on it first.

But yeah, even though it’s only about 100 miles away, there were moments when it felt like 1000 – and it was just what we both needed. ☺ Kitties prohibit our trips from being any longer than two nights, but we were both wishing we could have added a couple more nights to this trip. And yeah, there are probably some underlying issues when a getaway feels this important, but we won’t talk about that right now… 😅

This weekend ended up being exactly what I needed it to be. 😌 I also realized that in addition to just enjoying the company that I was with, having a human in my immediate proximity went a long way towards keeping my brain from getting stuck in the “on” position like it almost always does. (Much like how you have to jiggle the toilet handle just the right way to keep the water pump from running for hours and burning itself out. 😏) Now my company has gone, the weekend is coming to an end… but there’s still a new Rick and Morty episode tonight along with the season finale of Game of Thrones, so that provides one last little bit of goody before it’s back to normal tomorrow.

The current “you’ll hear from us” state of both of my attorney-led endeavors has got me feeling a bit restless again, so the first thing I’m going to do tomorrow is give those folks a call. I’m not sure that any prodding from me will make either of those situations move any more quickly, but at least I’ll feel like I’m trying to do something about it.

Another thing that I was reminded of this weekend is how nice it can be when I’m not perpetually absorbing the news of the day. It’s difficult for me to consciously avoid the news. I want to stay informed. I want to stay outraged at the things one should be outraged against. But much like the way I swore off of HLN years ago after shows like Dr Drew and Nancy Grace started to make me a little bit crazy… heh… I should really consider limiting my consumption of political news, even from the shows which present it from a point of view that is often similar to my own. (This topic is honestly worthy of it’s own multi-paragraph entry here. 🤔 Perhaps soon.)

Other information briefs: Christina handled her first chemo treatment like a champ, but today she cut her hair quite short in anticipation of the eventual hair loss. Jim’s mom is still putting up a fight against her cancer, but the probability of recovery at this point is not good. 😔 And then my friend Rick Kitzmiller… he’s got a lot of support, but complications during chemotherapy are starting to put his recovery at risk as well. 😟 “I’m just treading water.” is the way he most recently described it to friends via a Facebook post.

Obviously, I’ve also got other friends and family who are facing their own flavors of health problems (as am I) so it’s not that I’m not thinking about them and praying for them too… it’s just that cancer has a way of getting a bigger collective gasp, and those afflicted with it tend to stay near the front of your mind whether it’s fair or not. It’s just allincredibly sad, and in those times when I’m not thinking about it or talking about it, I just have to totally push it out of my mind or risk drowning in my thoughts.

Took care of quite a few things this week, but of course as usual – what happens now isn’t really anything that I can control. 😒 But as far as I know, and until I hear back from all the concerned attorneys, I believe I’ve done everything required for my aunt’s estate to be officially closed out and with the workers comp stuff… well, it’s just gonna do whatever it does. I’m basically a passenger again at this point.

Getting more done on those two fronts has given me a small boost in spirit. I’ve gotta be careful not to screw it up, but I’ve got some motivation now to start tackling the trimming of all the bushes around my house. Reminder, it’s not that it just requires motivation to wanna get out there and clip an obscene amount of bushes, it’s that it will probably hurt and the trimming of the top portion is actually physically impossible for me.

But my change in thinking about the process – I’m gonna trim all the vertical surfaces that I can, as I can, since there’s no rush or deadline… and then I’ve got Cassi coming to take care of the tops for me. (Or at least that’s the current plan.) So I’m feeling a little more upbeat just thanks to that. And yeah, I could vet and hire some d00ds to do it for me, but just having the feeling return to me, that I may actually be able to handle it myself (with help), makes it something that I’d rather try before shelling out even more money for landscaping tasks. It’s frustrating though, sitting in this house, looking out the picture window, and always being reminded of the things that the property needs that I can’t do. 😟 I gotta figure out what to do with that emotion.